We knew it was going to happen eventually, but anticipation is not nearly as exciting as actually seeing a monumental moment. Now, I could be talking about two big moments here, and honestly, I’m talking about both – the kiss between Kurt and Blaine and the advancement of New Directions to Nationals.

Clearly, it was a big episode. So let’s just get right into it.

We opened the episode at Dalton Academy, where the gang were putting the final touches on their Regionals programming, which was a little Blaine-heavy for Kurt’s liking. But judging by Blaine’s not-so-favorable response, Kurt had lifted the Burberry birdcage cover on a sensitive issue.

Back at McKinley, Rachel found herself still struggling to write a personal song that had mass appeal – and she was finding little success, especially since she appeared to be the sole berry on her tree of ambition. In a shocking moment of wisdom, Finn suggested that she dig deeper because she was dealing only with the “easy pain.”

It was refreshing to get a peek at the old Finn we used to know – you know, before he became…whatever he is this season. ‘Shipper pairs be damned, I just want him to end up with the girl who will make Finn likable again. Right now Rachel’s winning. That’s especially true considering we saw how prom-queen-obsessed Quinn is tiptoeing into Crazyville again (or, as Finn said, “scary Quinn”).

Meanwhile, both groups were dealing with major losses. The Warblers lost Pavarotti to a sudden stroke, and New Directions learned that they would be unable to perform My Chemical Romance for Regionals after Sue alerted the band. (We later found out that she forged the letter…and had slept with a member of Jimmy Eat World. Troubling.) So in the absence of better options, the group decided to do original songs for Regionals.

One great thing about the episode was that after last week’s plot-bomb-filled episode, the show didn’t completely abandon what we’d learned that week. I feel like sometimes major advancements are ignored for an episode or two, so I was pleased to see that they did address the frayed Brittany/Santana relationship. And it was rather heartbreaking to hear Santana say she was still planning on being with Sam, whom we all now know she has absolutely no feelings for. Not only is she setting up Sam for being hurt, but more importantly, it’s sad to see her retreating back into the closet in fear. Those were my thoughts, at least, before she sang “Trouty Mouth.” Then she was sort of just back to being Glee’s resident bi-atch. Goodbye, redeeming character traits.

There wasn’t much Lauren and Puck in this episode, which bummed me out because they’re one of my favorite pairs right now. I just love how they bring out the best in each other. Puck may have sung about Lauren’s “Big Ass Heart” in this episode, but until he started pursuing her, I didn’t know he had one too.